Mark, Jerry, Darian and others,
Thanks for your points of views and contributing to this thread.
Mike,
Lots of great info. More than I cared to know if I’m being honest. But then again, I stated originally that this seemingly simple question is very complex to analyze and many variables have to be taken into consideration.
For me, your comment, “The truth is that we as anglers should not have to deal with these issues” is my quagmire. We are having to deal with it, we have choices to make, and I want to feel/know that I’m doing the “right” thing for the fishery I most support (I support them all, just some more than others) by releasing a few of these big stripers I catch once in a while (two a year perhaps).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I want to harm the striper fishery at the expense of steelhead, but I’d like to know that I’m not harming the steelhead and unnecessarily protecting a striper fishery that doesn’t need this level of support.
This statement is confusing to me:
“What this implies is (aside from the tributary rivers) smolts do not occupy water that striped bass use for feeding during the passage through the delta with the exception of their entrainment at Clifton Court along with all the other fish.”
How is this possible if steelhead migrate to and from the same sea via the same Delta? Where is the water that striped bass use for feeding that smolt don’t occupy?
It’s my experience stripers feed where stripers are. My experience is you can catch them everywhere using just about anything. It’s my experience that striper I’ve landed and kept for dinner contain recently eaten smolt. So I’m really not getting where you’re coming from. Please help me to understand.
One other point, while I have the floor, to no one in particular and everyone that cares to comment; I’m not suggesting the big female stripers are single handedly responsible for consuming the steelhead smolt at levels that would alter the smolt population. My concern is more with the number of under 10 lbs smolt-eating stripers she makes, i.e., Mike’s comment “The biggest predator of the smolts are stripers under 10 lbs...That ought to help ones conscience as they release those big females!!” Which is back to my original point! Those 10 pounders came from somewhere!
Three additional points I want to make from personal observation:
1.I’ve never been over a school of thousands of steelhead a ½ mile long.
2.I’m not aware of a body of water associated with the delta that a striper doesn’t occupy as long as they have access to it.
3.I’ve caught striper in every month of the year.
The same cannot be said for steelhead.
fly: Very light artificial fly fishing lure of which there are two types: the dry fly which isn't supposed to sink the way it just did; and the wet fly, which shouldn't be floating up on the surface like that. An Angler's Dictionary.
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